Disposable E-mail Address

Because of the ever-growing problem with spam, it has become a common practice to use disposable E-mail addresses to protect your main address. Disposable addresses can be set up to forward into your main mail box, while allowing you the option of deleting them at any time should any one of them become the target of excessive unwanted messages. It avoids the need to change your main address and minimizes the number of people you need to contact regarding any change in address due to excessive spam. It can also be used as an easy way to unsubscribe from a mailing list that does not honor requests to be removed from their list.
We recommend using a disposable address when registering on any web site, including SpamCop's as it is impossible to guarantee full protection of e-mail addresses due to the ever-growing problem with Internet hackers.

The SpamCop Email Account provides for an unlimited number of "disposable" addresses. The format used by SpamCop is to add a "+" followed by the disposable name to your registered name. Technically speaking, they are not disposable, as they can not be deleted, since they really do not exist in the first place. They get "created" on the fly by the sender of the mail. In most cases it is the SpamCop user who gives out the address to be used, but any address will work, as the SpamCop email system simply ignores anything that follows the "+" sign at time of acceptance, only making use of it in relationship to the user's individual filter preferences. For the SpamCop Forum discussion on the subject see: Unlimited Aliases / Disposable addresses∞

The SpamCop example:

Advantages:

• An unlimited supply of names
• No additional cost
• No need to registered the name to use it

Disadvantages:

• Exposes your registered address as part of the disposable name
• Can not be deleted as they are never actually created

A safer format example used by most providers:

Advantages:

• Protects your registered (main) address
• Can be deleted to stop receiving mail from that address

Disadvantages:

• The number of addresses is usually limited
• There may be an additional cost to use or to obtain a larger number of addresses
• You must register the address with your provider to be able to use it

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